Don’t Worry About Anthony Bennett’s Belly

A story about Anthony Bennett maybe/maybe not struggling with his conditioning is making the rounds this week. The Plain-Dealer’s Jodie Valade revealed in a story on October 10th that Bennett is slightly above his playing weight of 240 pounds and his conditioning is far from a finished product. This is standard fare for this time of the year, especially for players who used the summer break to heal injuries before the start of the regular season. When an athlete can’t play basketball for a solid quarter of a year, its reasonable to expect a refractory period and Bennett has been out since the workout phase of the annual pre-draft buildup.

What seems to worry fans is the history of rookie big guys with apparent conditioning problems. For every Glen Davis who uses mass to their advantage, there is a Sean May who cannot overcome his own inertia to become an effective NBA player. This fear is not without its merits, but it pays to look at players on a case by case basis to determine what pattern exists if any. Generally, young post players take a while to adjust. The most difficult tweak to make is to find equal footing in the physical arena of NBA play. This is why Jonas Valanciunas needed to add 15-20 pounds of muscle this offseason. This is why Tristan Thompson is starting to put it together (theoretically) after an average rookie season. The paramount importance of being able to hang physically is why Andre Drummond has succeeded thus far in the NBA. He is an elite athlete among his NBA peers and so his adjustment period was smaller. For all of DeAndre Jordan’s basketball shortcomings, he is sufficiently explosive to make up for certain transgressions. Since there is an order of magnitude jump between college defenses and athleticism and the tactical and physical demands of NBA ball, none but the most talented players are able to step in and impose their will from the jump. It’s a very different animal. While Bennett isn’t necessarily a monstrous athlete on the order of the Javales and DeAndres of the league, he has the mass factor on his side and is more than his size.

This particular physical advantage is an uneasy one to ally with, due to the spotty history of Oliver Miller et al. I looked at the top half of the first round of the past 10 NBA drafts and tried to isolate players who struck me as similar to Bennett in composition or situation, and examined if they ended up flaming out in the NBA or succeeding in an attempt to suss out a pattern. The most similar players I found were Drummond, Demarcus Cousins, Derrick Williams, Jeff Green, Ike Diogu and Paul Millsap. Millsap was a second round selection, but is maybe the most similar to Bennett. Bennett is not a five, unlike Cousins, but the Kings centerpiece has been tagged as a conditioning problem since day 1. While Cousins has been an effective if not polarizing player, he does fall into a lot of the traps of poorly conditioned players. He has led the league in fouls before and appears to be a step slow on many defensive rotations. However, the Kings have a new/actual coach now and Cousins looks to be improving in all areas. What this reveals with regards to Bennett is that young players, particularly tall, vaguely out-of-shape ones like Cousins, are prone to fouling a lot. NBA defense requires a lot more communication, quick shuffling around and mastery of positioning. Bennett may struggle with this early on, but the depth ahead of him looks to allow him the necessary breathing room to learn on the job without heaps of pressure.

Diogu, Green and Williams are all tweeners, tall enough to be a power forward, but theoretically athletic enough to play closer to the wing. While all these players have vacillated between the three and the four with variable amounts of success, Bennett is probably going to exclusively play power forward for now (although a Irving-Jack-Waiters-Clark-Bennett lineup would be pretty fun). This is great news for Cavs fans, because players seemingly stuck between small and power forward should always move up. Today’s NBA is getting faster and more hybridized, and anyone playing on the wing needs to be able to check hyper-athletic threes. Bennett is probably not built for this, and his versatile skillset is better utilized as a floor stretching power forward. Thus, he avoids the pitfall trap of his coaches attempting to mold him into a zippy three, which requires probably more transformation than Bennett is capable of. He also gets to take advantage of his apparently nuanced and varied ball skills against less mobile power forwards.

A best case scenario sees Bennett developing into a Paul Millsap-type at the NBA level. Both players are slightly undersized, muscular power forwards with range and serviceable off-the-bounce abilities. Millsap has found ways to be successful despite his apparent spatial limitations by leveraging his skill and hustle. DraftExpress notes that he slipped in the draft because of concerns about his weight and size, which seem retrospectively silly. Bennett comes off as more polished version of Millsap, with better ball skills and good athleticism to pair with his tenacity. There is a conditioning hump for all players to get over, but with his apparent drive, the Cavs coaching staff pushing him and actual basketball to play after his summer hiatus, Bennett feels more like Millsap than Sean May with every game.

The player Bennett reminds me of the most is Larry Johnson (i.e. Grandmama). Similar size, athleticism, and skill set. Grandmama was a SF/PF tweener, but he was the good type of tweener… the guy who plays effectively in both spots. He played mostly at PF early in his career, then moved to SF for a couple seasons after he had the chance to improve his ball skills. I could easily see that happening with Anthony Bennett. For now he’ll be a power forward and as long as he doesn’t fall too much in love with his jump shot, he should be a solid bench contributor this year. Like with Dion Waiters last year, the supposed “weight issue” is a manufactured media story to eat up some pages before the season starts.

Milsap? That is the floor as far as I’m concerned. The middle is Larry Johnson and the ceiling is Sir Charles. I agree that Bennett is the good kind of tweener. He impressed me in Orl the other night when guarding the post. If he can guard taller players effectively, then he becomes a match-up nightmare because of his range and handle on the offensive end. I really think folks are under-estimating his skill set. Remember when quite a few analysts pre-draft called him arguably the most talented player in the draft? That was no hype. Now, he only gets to Barkley if he has the fire in the belly.

1) Will the coaching staff scheme/manage appropriately to take advantage of these strengths?

2) Since Bennett and TT are two players that can basically only play the 4, they have completely different skillsets (almost pure polar opposites), and you can’t pay two guys top-five-pick money to only play 30 minutes a game….when it comes time to get rid of one of them, which one will it be?

Bennett or TT will make the other one expendable – unless Bennett can eventually move to SF – which I do not think will be the case. TT has two season headstart on Bennett, but I think the skill difference between the two has TT as potential trade bait in a couple of years.

Not getting a lot of offensive production out of the SF isn’t a large concern of mine when Kyrie, Dion and hopefully a healthy Bynum are available. One defensive specialist on the wing and better than average interior defense (which we have) will make/keep us well-balanced. Once Bennett conditioning improves and skillset proves to be potent, him stretching the floor as a 4 will help keep things open for the kyrie/dion drives while simultaneously allowing perimeter play at a level that we can’t get with TT out there.

Unless TT significantly improves his range – whcih I doubt. I see AB being our PF of the futrue and TT turning into a very good trading piece or a better than average role player for 20 minutes a game.

I think that if Bennett truly can become a legit PF, then we can effectively move TT to the Center spot. How many great Centers are there in the league today that would actually give TT fits when he has to defend them? Ultimately, the way the NBA is moving…I don’t see it as much of an issue as some others do. Especially since it appears that Bennett can hold his ground in the post on defense. If he’s that stout now…maybe he could guard the other teams more bruising centers and let TT work on the PF’s.

Then again, I’m still not 100% sold on Bennett as a long term prospect…but I admit my bias against him started a long time ago. If he does work out defensively, then my bias goes away (because that was my biggest fear about him.)

“I really think folks are under estimating his skill set. . . Quite a few analysts pre-draft called him arguably the best player in the draft.” Many formed a bias against Bennett – and found an alternate favorite – when they were told he stinks on defense. There’s been no evidence of that thusfar. He banged quite nicely against Nicholson.

It depends on matchups. TT can give minutes at center against some teams. Bennett can play some three against others. And since they can all rebound, a Varejao / TT / Bennett rotation is possible against any team that doesn’t have a scoring threat at center.

I think Bennett will be able to play some 3 and I TT has shown he can play some 5 and that will assuage the necessity to eventually move one of them, but they still might get moved in a few years depending on other roster additions and cap situation. but you could definitely play them each 24 minutes at PF and then have them play 10-15 minutes a piece at SF and C respectively. TT did a pretty good job at center last year with Andy out. You don’t want him starting there, but against backups or for a limited time he’d do fine. I think eventually a Kyrie, Dion, Sergey, Bennett, TT lineup would be bonkers on offense, and not as bad as you think defensively.

I am convinced that no one would have any trouble with Bennett as the top pick if Derrick Williams hadn’t gone #2 two years ago. Many of Bennett’s detractors loved Derrick Williams and were hoping that the Cavs would take Williams and Brandon Knight instead of Kyrie. They were shocked by Williams’ struggles and – instead of being burned again – swore they would never “sell out” for an “undersized” power forward again.

They need to know that AB is not Williams. And AB is the guy that they were hoping to get when they were pushing for Williams. So, all those people that tried every which way to get the Cavs to trade up to get both Irving and “a studly” Williams – actually got their wish two years later – but don’t even know it.

I don’t think AB will be that bad of a defender at the 4. He’s an inch too short but his freakishly long arms will make up for that and should be a huge advantage for him playing the passing lanes. Think about the best 4’s in the league-They aren’t on the block bangers. Love, Aldridge, Lebron, Ibaka, Davis, yadda are all reliant of their face up game not grinding down low.

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Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

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